OK, we’ve all heard that “hindsight” is always 20/20. Knowing the past can predict the future.

Now we’re learning that knowing the future can predict the past.

Wait, what?

Professor Kater Murch of Washington University in St. Louis was written up in The Daily Mail…

If this proves true in our ‘classical’ world, it would mean that what we’re doing now has been influenced by the decision made by a future version of us.

This all remains theory, but physicists have created devices that has allowed them to measure these fragile quantum systems to see if this really is the case in the quantum world.

Professor Kater Murch at Washington University used this technique to look at the quantum state of two particles at different stages in their evolution.

The quantum state was detected by putting a circuit inside a microwave box.

A few microwave photons – or particles of light – were sent into the box, where their quantum fields interacted with the circuit.

When the photons exited the box they had information about the quantum system.

‘We start each run by putting the qubit in a superposition of the two states,’ Professor Murch said.

‘Then we do a strong measurement but hide the result, continuing to follow the system with weak measurements.’

They then try to guess the hidden result, which is their version of the missing page of the murder mystery.

‘Calculating forward, the probability of finding the system in a particular state, your odds of guessing right are only 50-50,’ Murch said.

‘But you can also calculate backward using something called an effect matrix. Just take all the equations and flip them around. They still work and you can just run the trajectory backward.

‘So there’s a backward-going trajectory and a forward-going trajectory and if we look at them both together and weight the information in both equally, we get something we call a hindsight prediction, or ‘retrodiction.’

The shattering thing about the retrodiction is that it is 90 per cent accurate.

When the physicists check it against the stored measurement of the system’s earlier state it is right nine times out of 10.

This suggests that in the quantum world time runs both backward and forward whereas in the classical world it only runs forward.

Professor Murch told Dailymail.com that it’s as if you left your keys somewhere in the house, but couldn’t remember where.

In the quantum world, they could exist in every room of the house simultaneously.

When you eventually find them in the kitchen, in the classical world it is clear that they were there all along, in the quantum world the uncertainty is intrinsic, but Profesor Murch was able to show that indeed hindsight can be applied to make a better guess about where they were in the past.

In the same way, the improved odds in the current experiment imply the measured quantum state somehow incorporates information from the future as well as the past.

And that might implies that time, notoriously an arrow in the classical world, is a double-headed arrow in the quantum world.

‘It’s not clear why in the real world, the world made up of many particles, time only goes forward and entropy always increases,’ Professor Murch added.

‘But many people are working on that problem and I expect it will be solved in a few years,’ he said.

Orbital Sciences Corporation confirms that today’s Antares rocket launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility was not successful. Shortly after lift-off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0A at 6:22 p.m. (EDT), the vehicle suffered a catastrophic failure. According to NASA’s emergency operations officials, there were no casualties and property damage was limited to the south end of Wallops Island. Orbital has formed an anomaly investigation board, which will work in close coordination with all appropriate government agencies, to determine the cause of today’s mishap.

Orbital has demonstrated extraordinary capabilities in its first two missions to the station earlier this year, and we know they can replicate that success. Launching rockets is an incredibly difficult undertaking, and we learn from each success and each setback. Today’s launch attempt will not deter us from our work to expand our already successful capability to launch cargo from American shores to the International Space Station.

Industry Groups, Trade Shows

NSR Space and Satellite Regulatory Colloquium focused on emerging space law and regulatory issues facing the U.S. Administration and International governments will be held in Washington D.C. at the W Washington Hotel October 23.[Satnews – October 2014]

Myanmar Satellite Forum to be attended by a number of global satellite operators at Myanmar Event Part, Yangon on November 19, 2014.[telecomlead – 10/09/2014]

Launch Activity

O3b and Galileo satellites swap places in Soyuz launch queue; with the next O3b launch to now be in mid-December.[Space News – 10/10/2014]

The commercial arrangement for NASA’s scheduled December 4 Orion EFT-1 launch requires both a commercial launch license and a commercial re-entry license from the Federal Aviation Administration.[Space News – 10/10/2014]

Tourists find it difficult to visit the Baikonur Cosmodrome to see a Soyuz launch- Space News

Ground Systems Technology

Government, Military & Defense

Inmarsat’s L-band Tactical Satellite (L-TAC) service delivers a resilient Ultra High Frequency (UHF)-like tactical satellite capability to existing military and commercial radios used by the U.S. government.[Intelligent Aerospace – 10/10/2014]

U.S. ceases decades-long practice of jamming television and radio broadcasts from Cuba, a decision that will strengthen the U.S. position against intentional jamming by Iran, China, Ethiopia and elsewhere.[Space News – 10/10/2014]

Regulatory

Aeronautical

Boeing completes testing of low profile aeronautical satellite antenna developed for Al Yah Satellite Company of the United Arab Emirates.[Defense World – 10/10/2014]

Testing Transaero Airlines InFlight Connectivity (IFC) – it “is kind of like a swimming pool at a hotel: You don’t use it every time — maybe not even 50 percent of the times — but it is always nice to know it is there.”[Via Satellite – 10/06/2014]

Broadband

Squire Tech Solutions updates website with extensive satellite product and service information to help customers and partners understand the complete range of satellite internet communication solutions.[Broadway World – 10/09/2014]

Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) Market 2018: managed and wholesale services analyzed and forecasts in new research report at Sandlerresearch.org.[University Chronicle – 09/28/2014]

The October issue of Satellite Executive Briefing Magazine includes “Change and Challenges Ahead in the Satellite Industry” by Elisabeth Tweedie, “Satellite Communications Networks and Cyber-Security” by Martin Jarrold, and “Case Study on Globalstar’s SPOT Lifesaving Rescues” by Virgil Labrador.[Satellite Markets & Research – October 2014]

The Human Aspect

Malaysiakini file photo

Group claiming to be independent experts says the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) should be searching further south in the Indian Ocean for missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370.[malaysiakini – 09/30/2014]

With all the sanctions in place against major industries in Putin’s Russian Empire, it’s become increasingly difficult to sell $65 million Proton launches. Add that to illusion of “Russian quality” in manufacturing, and you’ve got a direct route to failure.

So what’s psycho dickhead’s master plan for his space industry? Plan a manned mission to the Moon! Via ITAR-TASS, the drunk derelicts who can’t get a decent translator for their site…

“At the end of the next decade, we plan to complete tests of a super-heavy-class carries rocket and begin full-scale exploration of the Moon,” he said at a government meeting chaired by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. “By that time, based on the results of lunar surface exploration by unmanned space probes, we will designate most promising places for lunar expeditions and lunar bases,” Ostapenko added.